Chapter 7: Company meeting

"Really? It took you that long to figure it out?"
That was Kira. She had been standing in the door. For how long Paradox couldn't say, but he was glad that he wasn't alone with the professor anymore.
"Well, I-" the professor began, a bit flustered.
Kira put up her paw to silence him. "No, no. I was probably too hasty to believe Paradox myself, but now that you have explored the possibilities quite thoroughly, we should talk about what happened today. Come to the conference room." Kira left, leaving Paradox alone with the professor. Paradox didn't know where the conference room was, but he didn't particularly want to wait for directions in the lab, either. He began walking to the door when the professor gripped his arm. Paradox's first thought was that the professor had decided to finally finish him off, but the expression on his face said differently.
"I'm... terribly sorry for all that." He said solemnly. "I- I had all but given up hope that I'd ever see someone like you, let alone have one walk into my lab of their own accord."
Paradox was a bit nervous. The older bunny wasn't about to burn Paradox at the stake for sure, but he seemed to be expecting something special from Paradox, and that scared him almost as much.
The professor seemed discouraged by Paradox's silence. "Anyway, we should probably go." he said. "The duchess isn't accustomed to being kept waiting."
Paradox nodded, letting the professor lead the way to the conference room, which was just down the hall.
When Paradox entered, Kira and the professor were the only other creatures there. Paradox wasn't sure who else he had been expecting. Investors? a mob? but he had been expecting someone.
The professor seemed to agree. "Kira, shouldn't we bring more people in on this meeting? Head of enforcement? scientific experts?"
Kira shook her head. "You're the expert in this sort of thing; the only one I need. As for enforcement, I'd like to keep this quiet for the time being."
"Um, why?" Paradox got out. He felt like he'd butted in on someone else's conversation.
Kira seemed to share a similar sentiment from her expression, but said nothing of it. "I'd like to keep this quiet because that thing came out of my lab," she said instead. "And until we can get it under control, I don't have time to deal with protests or whatever brilliant ideas the people of this city come up with."
That was news to Paradox. "You... made that thing?"
the Professor interjected. "No. No, absolutely not. Besides the fact that I would never allow such a thing to be attempted in this building, Whatever that thing was or is is completely beyond my understanding."
Paradox was confused. "Then... how'd it get in here?"
Kira pushed a button and the light went out. simultaneously the table in the center of the room lit up. The surface of the table had transformed into a map of the city and the surrounding lands. Kira used her paws to zoom out, expanding the area the map covered until Paradox could see the entire red desert, with the sea to the east and a green woodland to the west. Paradox blinked a bit. The table was brightly lit, not to mention it was more than twice as fancy as any furniture Paradox had ever seen.
"One of KiCorp's greatest businesses is reverse-engineering." Kira said as she slid the map so she could more easily see the western section. "That's thanks to an ancient village we discovered years ago in the middle of the Black Forest." Kira pointed out a marker on the map, which was situated near the center of the wooded area.
Paradox gasped internally. That was his village; or at least he had come to think of it as such from the stories his mother had told him.
Kira continured. "In some ways, they were a primitive people; they lived in mud huts and used dirt roads; but in other ways... Some of their technology is utterly breathtaking, not to mention light-years beyond our own." Kira seemd lost in thought for a moment before she came back to the conversation at hand. "KiCorp sends a convoy to the village regularly to scavenge valuable technologies. Just today they brought back some kind of massive containment unit. We messed with it a bit, and it exploded. That thing was inside."
"Quantum Collapse." the professor said.
"Excuse me?" Kira said back.
"Quantum Collapse is the name the thing gave for itself." The professor continued. "I've reviewed the tapes of the incident."
"You have cameras outside your building?" Paradox said.
"We have cameras all over the city." Kira said flaly. "We live in the Conflux. Get used to it."
While Paradox mulled that over, Kira turned back to the professor. "Well, was there anything else you could learn from the tapes?"
"No," the professor said. "But I was able to take a look at our sensor records at the time of the breakout. This Collapse fellow gave off EM readings consistent with a Psion, albeit one much more powerful than any we've been able to dream up."
Kira raised an eyebrow.
"Sorry, but you keep using that word;" Paradox interrupted. "Psion. You both used it for me and now you're using for this thing."
"Ah, my apologies." The professor said. "Let me explain as best I can. A Psion is someone with a power derived from the mind." The professor put a paw to his temple as he said it. "Years ago I heard a few legends from the native people of this continent about a group who could lift heavy objects, start fires, and conjure objects with their minds alone. I was naturally skeptical at first, but after I did some research I found it was plausible. After I joined with KiCorp we even found some technologies in the Black Forest specifically designed to interface with psionic commands."
"Yes, well Paradox doesn't need the full story." Kira said impatiently. "did you find anything else on the sensors?"
"Nothing concrete." the professor said. "This 'Quantum Collapse' is just a blind spot to both Sonar and Radar. It's like the thing is made from pure energy. One thing though, the blind spot does seem to shrink for the duration of the battle."
"You mean I might have knocked something off of it?" Paradox said, suprised.
"That is one possibility" the professor said; but he didn't sound convinced. "I'll need more time to study or more data, preferably both, before I can make a definite conclusion."
"We don't have time for a research project, professor." Kira said.
"We could, um, go to the village..." Paradox said quietly, not really expecting to be heard.
Kira looked at Paradox. "What did you say? Speak up!" She said.
Paradox shrank a bit before answering. "I just said that maybe since you got the... thing... from the village, you could go back to where you got it and look around? Maybe they, I don't know, wrote something down about it, or something?"
Paradox wasn't sure what he saw in Kira's gaze, but it was lingering on him for far too long for his liking. He stood uncomfortably for a few seconds beofre saying "It's just an idea." He wanted to add please don't kill me, but he stopped himself.
"Alright." Kira said, finally breaking eye contact by looking to the map beneath her paws. "You can go the the Dark forest to find what we need."
Paradox gulped. "Uh- j-just, me?" Paradox stammered.
"Yes." Kira said. "Is there a problem with that?"
Paradox wasn't sure if kira trusted him a whole lot more than she let on or if she wanted to send him on a suicide mission. "Erm, don't you... have people... for that sort of thing?" He asked.
"Yes." Kira said. "But perhaps you need clarification on one point. I am keeping this quiet. Not only because I'd like to avoid panic in the streets and I'd like to be able to get to sleep without protesters ringing in my ears from outside. The emperor has eyes everywhere; some of which I don't directly control. He has maintained his power by controlling everything. What do you think he might do when he finds out that there's not only a powerful psion here, but one that's been living outside the city for his entire life?"
Paradox stood stock still. Was Kira threatening him or simply stating facts? Was living outside the city really that big of a deal?
"seeing as how you seem to have no guesses," Kira said, "Allow me to tell you. There are two options: Either you swear undying fealty to the emperor, becoming his instrument and ensuring him total control of all the psionics this world has ever discovered, or you are killed, ensuring him much the same thing. He might not ask which you prefer before deciding."
Paradox gulped. He might have said that he'd swear fealty to the emperor before dying, but he'd be lying. It sounded like a horrible life to live, not to mention the alternative that the emperor might just kill him without asking.
Kira took a deep breath and continued, like she was exhausted. "Lucky for you, I'm not ready to let the greatest scientific discovery of our age be executed by firing squad just yet. So, for now, at least, we keep everything about today a secret." Kira resumed her knife-like gaze at Paradox. "Are we clear?"
Paradox wasn't exactly, but the daggers shooting out of Kira's eyes convinced him to nod anyway.
"Good." Kira said. "Then gather what you need for the trip and meet me at the west gate."
Then Kira, apparently satisfied that the meeting was now over, walked out of the room.